Turning our canine Banksy into Da Vinci

We’ve had our saluki/whippet cross Walter for a year now and we can’t remember what life was like before we got him – and we don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

One idea for this week’s column was to simply list all the things he’s destroyed in our house since October 29, 2015 but there’s only space for around 390 words and that wouldn’t even cover half of it.

It’s not that he’s a bad dog, far from it.

It’s just that he’s very clever, very strong-willed and, like many adolescents, knows how to play mum and dad off against each other.

You know when dogs tilt their heads from side-to-side when you talk to them in a certain way using buzz words such as “walk”, “ball”, and “lead” ?

Well, that’s them working out the angles.

We got a dog for the same reason that some brainless couples have a baby, because they think it will bring them closer together.

Ha!

What a load of rubbish that is on both counts.

Nothing drives a wedge between people quite like sleep deprivation, poo everywhere and your precious time stolen away from you.

We’ve had loads of dogs but none so challenging as Walter, or Prince Walter as he likes to be called. Basically he thinks he’s top dog and we are his loyal subjects.

The boss read up on this and learned that if your dog displays any of the following types of behaviour then he thinks he is higher in the pecking order than you.

Here we go – grumbles when moved (check); hanging on to objects such as his ball/stolen £20 Yankee Candle/cushion emptied of stuffing (check); persistently nudging people with his long, beaky snout (check); getting back at you by piddling on the floor/chewing (check) and staying just out of reach (check, full house. Bingo!).